July 25, 2004
By Jack Price

The idea of God being in us, and of the power of that connectedness to actually change the world, can sound a little scary, if we’re serious about.  It’s a lot to digest, if we really mean it.  That connectedness is prayer and, since today’s “By Request” topic is prayer, let’s begin with two frequently asked questions on prayer:  why should we pray and how should we pray?

Luke’s is not the most familiar version of the Lord’s Prayer.  It’s a little shorter than Matthew’s version and comes in a different context.  In Matthew, the Lord’s Prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount while in Luke, it is set apart, an isolated incident.  Jesus is in prayer as some of the disciples approach and ask him how to pray.  He gives them a model prayer like many of those shared this morning in worship.  You and I often say these words as our own prayer. 

Jesus also gave them a model for prayer, sort of a “thumb-nail” sketch of the content and attitude of prayer.  When you pray, these words serve as a guide.  It seems a little obvious, but when you pray, pray to God.  God is intimate and holy, our divine and heavenly parent.  To hallow God’s name means that we keep a reverent attitude with regard to the ultimate reality the name God represents.

Your kingdom come is a plea for God’s ways and will to become the reality of this world and of our lives.  Give us daily bread points to being aware of the needs in us and around us, and have the ability to distinguish needs from wants.  Forgiveness is a two-way street.  Our forgiveness by God doesn’t depend on our forgiving others because we can’t earn God’s love.  Our forgiving others, however, indicates awareness of have been forgiven – that there is in us a core of grace.  And regarding the time of trial, God don’t bring us there.  Keep us from falling away.  Give us the ability to hang on and hang in, to find ways to believe and trust.

Beyond this, how should we pray?  Notice something curious in Jesus’ prayer.  Almost every statement is imperative, like a command.  Hallowed be your name!  Kingdom, come!  Give daily bread!  Forgive our sin!  Don’t bring us to trial!  It’s almost as though we are ordering God!

The Lord’s prayer seems to contain statements that give God instructions.  Theologian Walter Wink suggests that God commands us to command God, orders us to insist on these things.  How can we order God?  This idea only really makes sense when we remember that ours is not the first voice in prayer.  Our prayer is a response to the movement of the Spirit who urges us to be urgent in prayer.  Our role is central because our passion and commitment are crucial.  Our faithfulness in prayer is irreplaceable. 

How does this work?  One of the ways prayer works is by changing us.  Our openness to the Spirit connection and the faithfulness with which we pray affects our approach to living.  Prayer opens spaces within our lives for God to act.  And God acts along the lines of our prayer.

Another way prayer works is in our partnership with God.  We are partners with God.  Naturally, God is the senior partner whose vision and will are determinative for us.  God works with and through each person according to our unique giftedness, our unique focus, and our willingness to pray. 

We live in world full of need – for healing, for justice, for meaning, for truth, for food and medicine, for inclusion and love.  As we allow ourselves to become aware of these overwhelming needs, they move through our minds and hearts.  They are impossible for us to fix.  All we can do is send them all to God in prayer.  And we let them go, trusting God to be God.  And God sends back to each of us the particular dimension of need and possibility that exactly corresponds to our unique identity and giftedness – the need that’s got “our name on it”.

Sometimes, evil gets in the way of prayer.  There is evil in us and in the world, in the very systems of society and modes of our thinking.  Such evil disrupts and delays our praying and God’s responses to prayer, even the fulfillment of worthy prayers.  The power of evil can act in people and through human systems to thwart God’s will for awhile.  So prayer, sometimes does not seem to work, at least for a while.

There are risks in prayer.  This risk factor goes up as our prayers get more specific.  Each of us will have to answer for ourselves how specific we are willing to be in prayer.  I am finding the willingness to be very concrete and specific in my praying is bringing a new intensity to my prayer life. 

Prayer is not a magical grab bag for wishes.   Sometimes I wish it were.  Sometimes the things we pray for don’t happen.  Sometimes I understand why and sometimes I don’t.  I do know that prayer is a mystical connection through which God is changing the world.  There is power and understanding that is not ours.

How we pray is not a factor in prayer’s effectiveness.  It doesn’t really matter whether or not we use the right words or that we’re good enough or spiritual enough.  What is vital is that we pray.  Any amount of faith that we bring to prayer is enough for God to use.  God’s nature, God’s power, and God’s faithfulness are all that matters in whatever space we open.

What about those other images Jesus used?  There was the friend at midnight who doesn’t want to help you.  With persistence on your part, he will help, but God is more faithful.  So be persistent in prayer.  Keep asking.  Keep seeking.  Keep knocking and doors will open.  When a child asks for food, some may give snakes or scorpions, but God is much more faithful.  God always gives the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit always brings healing and wholeness.  It’s not our ability or piety that makes prayer effective, but rather our willingness to pray.  What really matters is God being God-like. 

Why, then, should we pray?  Prayer is the power of a connectedness with God that can change the world.  Prayer affects the life of the pray-er.  Prayer opens an aperture for the Spirit to move to transform the world, to transform individual lives, and to transform you and me.  We help bring the kingdom of God from invisible to visible reality.  It happens little by little through individual people of faith.

God respects human initiative and the free exercise of human will.  So, God acts only when we open the space.  Praying, then, is inseparable from doing and doing is inseparable from praying.  The results of praying are growth and transformation.  For individuals, praying brings transformation and spiritual growth.  For humanity, prayer brings social transformation and reform.

If you were Jesus, and someone asked you, “teach me how to pray,” you might find guidance in the words of this poem:

Please stop, please!

Silence!

Listen to the beating of your heart.

Listen to the blowing of the wind,

The movement of the Spirit

Be silent – said the Lord –

And know that I am God.

And listen to the cry of the voiceless.

Listen to the groaning of the hungry.

Listen to the pain of the landless.

Listen to the sigh of the oppressed,

And to the laughter of the children.

[*Celebrating One World (CAFOD 1989)]

Prayer is life, a mystical connection.  Prayer is action, a mystical channel through which God touches and transforms the world.  When you pray, listen, then speak in words that reveal themselves through the open channel of your life.  The Spirit moves through you and into you, and there is prayer.  God’s kingdom comes in you and through you, and prayer continues, and God’s will is done.